AHEAD OF THE CURVE The pump's overall reliability and rapid disassembly and reassembly time are said to have wowed international audiences
Heavy-duty pump solutions manufacturer and supplier Pump and Abrasion Technologies (PAT) has received a highly positive reaction to the Curve range from potential international clients, says sales director James Pienaar.
The company unveiled Curve, its latest product range, to the African market at Electra Mining Africa 2016, in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the global market at MINExpo 2016, in Las Vegas, the US.
Pienaar highlights that visitors to the company’s MINExpo booth were “incredibly excited” to see a slurry pump that catered for the needs of the client from an engineering perspective and in other regards, with overall enthusiasm translating into numerous new business and sales opportunities for PAT.
“They were relieved to finally see something new and different in an industry that really has been stagnant for a number of years in terms of product design and new technology.”
Visitors to PAT’s MINExpo stand were most excited by the safety improvements and the lower maintenance requirements, owing to the Curve range’s longer life cycles.
Pienaar explains that engineers were captured by the overall reliability and uptime of the range, while most foremen were drawn to its disassembly and reassembly time being half that of other pumps on the market.
The Curve range measured up well against competitor products on show at MINExpo, which is widely regarded as the world’s leading international mining industry trade show, comments Pienaar. “The Curve brand really stood out at the event, [compared with] other products on show, owing to the technology and benefits that the range offers,” he says.
The range has been designed and developed by PAT over the past three years. Its design and features are based on in-depth research into what clients need backed up by extensive client feedback, says PAT.
The result is a pumps solution that is customised to the requirements of its end-user, answering all operational needs, says Pienaar.
He asserts that, based on the information that was gathered from clients, the internal hydraulic layout of the Curve pumps was redesigned to achieve optimal capital and operational costs when plotting the specific geometric size of the pump against the total life cycle cost.
In addition to this cost benefit, PAT’s designers ensured that low energy consumption was prioritised in the design and that the Curve range could be retrofitted to legacy pumping systems with minimal changes to existing piping. Pienaar adds that this reduces total cost of ownership by 40% to 60%.
He highlights that, overall, the products in the Curve range also offer decreased energy consumption throughout the product life cycle, longer wear life, increased efficiency and improved safety for personnel during both installation and maintenance.
Pienaar says usually when old technology is upgraded, there are only one or two new added benefits; however, with the Curve range, the added benefits are numerous. There are more than 20 added features that differentiate the range from older slurry pump technology
.